Freight-car.



W. T. MANNING.

FREIGHT CAR.

APPLICATION FILEDJUNE2.1914.

Patented July 13, 1915.

5 SHEETS-SHEET l.

W. T. MANNING.

FREIGHT CAR.

APPLICATION 111151311111152, 1914.

l y 1l @632 Patented July 13, 1915.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 2- W. T. MANNING.

FREIGHT CAR. APPLICATION FILED IuNE 2, i914.

Patented July 13, 1915.

LNQ:

5 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

W. T. MANNING.

FREIGHT CAR.

APPLICATION r|LED1uNE2.1914.

L 14632 Patented July 13, 1915.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

W. T. MANNING.

FREIGHT CAR.

APPLICATION F1LED1UNE2,19|4.

1.9 1E. 46;?2., 1316111911 my 13, 1915.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 5.

W`ILLIA1VL T. MANNING, OF GOVANS, MARYLAND.

FREGHT-CAR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July f3, 19115,

Application led June 2, 1914. Serial No. 842,415.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, VILLIAM T. MAN- NING, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Govans, in the county of Baltimore and State ofMaryland, have invented certain new and useful improvements inFreight-Cars; and l do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear,and exact description of the invention, such as will enable othersskilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My present invention relates to improvements in the construction offreight cars, and it consists in providing a car especially adapted tobe emptied cheaply and economically, and also to furnish at the sametime a reduced resistance to atmospheric pressure on the moving car, andto render the car more immune from injury from side-wipes.

lt is well known that in the present types of metal cars, especially theopen cars carrying coal and ore, there is a chemical action between thematerial loaded in the car and the metal sides of the car, causing theformation of cake or scale, not only eating into the walls of the car,but also rendering it difficult to clean said sides, and also preventingthe free passage downward of the load in the car when the hoppers a'reopen. This is especially true when the coal or ore is wet, as from rainor snow. The difficulty of unloading the car is enormously increasedwhen the coal or ore after becoming wet is subsequently frozen in thecar, when it has to be dug out with picks or thawed out, or both.

According to my invention, I provide a form of car body, having ends andsides inclined upward and inward, so as to allow the contents of the carto fall away from the sides and ends thereof readily by gravity, and inorder to thaw the contents of the car when desired l shift the hollowtubular bracing on the sides of the car from the outside to the interiorthereof, and l connect the same to suitable passages provided over thebeams and in the hoppers at the bottom of the car; the whole forming asteam space into which steam may be admitted fromthe engine, or from anyother convenient source of supply. In this way the already existingparts of the car are utilized, with or without slight modifications, toconstitute a steam reservoir into which steam may be turned, and whichwill etfectually heat the material in the interior of the car andquickly thaw out same when the former is frozen.

Incident to removing the tubular bracing from the exterior to theinterior of the car, the .plane sides of the car do not offer suchprojecting surfaces to wind pressure when the car is in motion as ifthis bracing were on the exterior of the car, while at the same time thesloping ends of the car will tend to deflect the air upward when the caris in motion, causing a still further decrease of wind resistance.Furthermore, by having the sides of the car plane there will bev noprojecting ribs to strike, or be struck by a train, or objectsprotruding on adjacent tracks, and the car is less liable to injure orto cause injury from side-wipes, which' are a frequent source'of troublein railroading. Furthermore, the shifting of the side braces to theinterior of the car will enable the side walls of the car to be spacedfarther apart, or the interior of the car body widened; without`increasing the prescribed overall width of the same. This willmaterially increase the cubical capacity of the car, and hence willenable the car to carry larger loads, or to beldecreased in height if itbe desired not to increase the cubical contents of the car. The decreasein height will, of course, lower the center of gravity of the car bodyand its load. Thus in a train of 40 cars, the removal of the braces fromthe inside to the outside would effect a saving of about 5200 cubicfeet, or the capacity of two whole cars on said train, or about 5 percent.

As an incident to the sloping ends and sides of the car body, these maybe much more readily kept clean, or cleaned off, if used with coal orore, and the car is thus especially adapted for use with clean returnfreight, such as grain, or the like.

My invention will vbe understood by reference to the accompanyingdrawings, in which similar parts are indicated by similar referencesymbols y`throughout the several views.

Figure l is an end view of a covered car constructed according to myinvention; Fig. 2 shows a cross section of the same, the section beingalong the line 2-2of Fig. 3, and looking inthe direction of the arrows;Fig. 3 shows a central vertical section through one half of the carshown in Figs. 1 and 2, 110

parts being shown in elevation, the section being along the broken line3`3 of Fig. 2, but the hopper doors being shown open; Fig. 4 is anexterior view of that portion of the car shown in Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is anend view of an open car constructed according to my invention; Fig. 6shows a cross section of the same along the line 6-6 of Fig. 7 andlooking in the direction of the arrows; Fig. 7 shows one end inelevation, and the other end in central vertical section through the carbody of Figs. 5 and 6; and Fig. 8 shows a section along the line'8-8 ofFig. 7, and shows a plan view of the bottom of the car body, with thehoppers, heating chambers, etc.

Referring first to Figs. 1-4, showing a covered car constructed4according to my in vention, A, A represent the ends of the car, andl B,B the sides thereof, which ends and sides are inclined slightly inwardtoward the axis of the car, or tumble home, thus forming a slantingstructure from which any load in biulk in the car, such as coal, ore,grain, or the like, would tend to fall away and thus tend-to facilitatethe unloading of the car, and also to facilitate the keeping of theinner walls clean.

The top C of the car is provided with a series of doors, or covers, Dhinged, as at d, and each door, or cover, may be provided with one ormore ventilators E, if desired, or these ventilators may be dispensedwith, if desired.

Mounted on the top of the car is the usual running board F. The base ofthe car body Y is provided with the usual side sills G and end sillsI'I, and with the usual central sill, or beam, I, see Fig. 2, whichV isinclosed in the casing I with a tapered cap I2, as will be hereinaftermore fully described.

The car is preferably provided with the usual hand wheel J and partscontrolled thereby,r for applying the brakes by hand, and with anysuitable coupler L. v

Each end of the car may be provided. with an opening M", covered by asliding door M which slides on the frame m, and may be raised or loweredby the rope or chain m winding over the pulley m2, which-may be turnedin any convenient way.

In the half of the car shown in Figs. 1-4, I provide a single hopper Kwith end pockets K, closed by swinging doors P and F,

respectively, as shown most clearly in Fig. 3. These doors may be closedin any convenient way, as by means of the ropes, or chains, Qfpassingover the pnlleys'shown diagrammatically in Fig. 3. rIhese'hopperspreferably extend entirely across the bottom of the car, as shown inFig. 2.

In the construction of the car, I use hollow braces R, extendingvertically along the inside of the sloping carl walls A and B, and4having air passages in the hollow portions ineens thereof connected tosimilar passages in the longitudinal braces R at the side of the car seeFig. 2, and also with the transverse braces R2 at the top of the car,see Fig. 2; thus forming a series of steam chambers which are ordinarilyfilled with air. Similar steam spaces Ico are provided by placing afalse bottom k in the hoppers, and all of these steam spaces so providedare connected together and to the steam spaces SO, between the casingI', I2 surrounding the central sill of the car and the outer casing Swhich is spaced therefrom as by suitable spacers s, as shown in Fig. 2.Similar spaces k2 separate the inner and outer bottoms of the hoppers,as shown most clearly at the bottom 'of Fig. 2.

A t the ends of the hoppers are large chambers II", as shown niostclearly in Fig.

`3. Steam may be applied to the connected group of steam chambers justdescribed in any convenient way, as through the pipe T opening into oneof the hollow spaces forming the steam chamber. I have shown such a pipe'I in Fig. 3 connected to one of the hollow braces at the end of the carwith valves U and U', controlling the flow of the steam either up ordown, as may be desired, in the hollow brace.

Suitable drain-cocks V are provided at the bottom of the car, as shownin Figs. 2, 3 and 4, to draw off the condensed water from the bottom ofthe car, and also to let out the air when it is desired to blow insteam. Thus it will be seen that I provide a series of inter-connectedsteam chambers on the interior of the car body, all of which may befilled with a heating medium, lsuch as steam from the locomotive, or anyother source, and thus the interior of the car may be readily heated forthe purpose of thawing out the load in the car, or for preventing thesame from freezing.

It will be obvious that instead of a heat-l ing Huid, such as steam, anyconvenient cooling iuid may be used, such as co-mpressed air, ifdesired, which cooling fiuid may be allowed toexpand into the hollow'spaces in the sides, bottom and framework of the car body, thus coolingthe interior of the car.

It will be obvious that the pipe T could be connected to any suitablesource of heating oi' cooling Huid, such as the boiler of a locomotive,or any stationary heating or cooling plant. 1

In the form of device shown in Figs. 5, 6, 7 and 8, the top of the carbody is open, and the hollow tubular framing runs along the sides andbottom thereof, in-a vertical and horizontal direction, as has alreadybeen described; there are also hollow spaces between the inner and outerbottoms of the hoppers, and alsoabove the longitudinal and transversesills. In this form of device, instead of having a singlehopper eis@-tending entirely across the car, separate hoppers K2 on each side of thecar are shown, with two pockets K3 at'each end, which hoppers and endpockets are closed by doors P and P similar to those already described.In order to facilitate the dumping of the load through these hoppers K2when the doors are open, the inner walls of the hoppers are preferablyinclined downward and inward toward the center of the car, as shown atK4 in Fig. 6. The transverse sills are covered with hollow, inverted,Vsha-ped caps S3, as shown in Fig. S, and the air spaces beneath theseare connected to the air spaces beneath the cap S mounted above thelongitudinal central sill I, as shown in F G. lVith this arrangement thesteam when applied will go through the hollow bracing along the sidesand ends of the car, and especially1 in the hollow spaces in the bottomof the car and above the longitudinal and transverse sills, thusproviding a large heating area whichj will promiptly thaw out any iceformed in the coal, ore, o-r the like, contained in the car.

It will be noted that the material carried in the car will tend tofreeze more quickly at the sides and bottom, and thus the heat isapplied at the desired points, while the condensed water from the steamis drained ofi' from the bottom of the car, as previously explained.

In using the heating arrangement herein described, it would, of course,`be desirable, when the steam is turned on, to allow the air to escapethrough the cocks V, and thus facilitate the admission of the steam tothe entire heating space.

It will thus be seen that I describe a car body whose sloping ends andsides, and the construction of whose hoppers will greatly facilitate theunloading of material shipped in bulk therein, such as coal, ore, grain,or the like, and that by the herein described arrangement of heating orcooling medium, the interior of the car may be heated or cooled as maybe desired.

It will also be noted that the cars constructed according to myinvention are less liable to be impeded by wind pressure, and are lesslikely to be injured from side wipes; fuitherinoi'e by having the sidesand ends of the car tumbled home, as described, the center of gravity ofthe load is thrown lower down, and there is less tendency of the cars totopple over from the usual well known causes.

It will also be noted that the herein described cars include the variousadvantages of modern metallic car construction with the variousadvantages already set out; but at the same time contain no featureswhich would incur any heavy additional expense in construction, or wouldinvolve impracticable details, such as are generally found in attemptsto materially modify existing commercial framework or bracing, thehollow portions of the frame may be connected together to form acontinuous cooling or heating chamber, as has been fully described withreference to metal cars. y

It will be obvious that various modifications might be iliade in theherein described apparatus, and in the construction, combination andarrangement of parts which could be used without departing from thespirit of my invention.

Having thus described my'invention, what I claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent of the United States is l. A car body having its sidesinclined upward and inward so as to slightly overhang the interior ofthe car body, the said car body being provided with hollow bracingmounted on the inside thereof, the hollow spaces of said bracing beingconnected together to forni a continuous heating or cooling chamber,with means for supplying fluid to said chamber, substantially asdescribed.

2. A car body having its sides and ends inclined upward and inward so asto sliglitl y overhang the interioi of the car body, the said car bodybeing provided with hollow bracing mounted on the inside thereof, thehollow spaces of said bracingbeing connected together to form acontinuous heating or cooling chamber, with means for supplying' fluidto said chamber, substantially as described.

3. A car body having its sides and ends forming the frustum of arectangular hollow pyramid, the said car body being provided with hollowbracing mounted on the inside thereof, the hollow spaces of said bracingbeing connected together to form a continuous heating or coolingchamber, with means for supplying fluid to said chamber, substantiallyas and for the purposes described.

4. A car body having its sides inclined upward and inward so as toslightly overhang the interior of the car body, the said car body beingprovided with hollow bracing mounted on the inside thereof, the hol; lowspaces of said bracing being connected together to forni a continuousheating' or cooling chamber, and the longitudinal and transverse sillsof said car body being provided with hollow caps forming air spacesconnected to the air spaces in the hollow framing, with means forsupplying fluid to said chamber, substantially as described.

5. A car body having its sides and ends Y inclined upward and inward soas to slightly overhang the interior of the car body, the said car bodybeing provided with hollow bracing mounted on the inside thereof, the

hollow spaces of said bracing being connected together to form acontinuous heating or cooling chamber, and the longitudinal andtransverse sills 4of said car body being provided with hollow capsforming air spaces connected to the air spaces in the hollow framing,with means for supplying fluid to said chamber, substantially asdescribed.

6. A car body having its sides and ends forming the frustum of arectangular hollow pyramid, the said car body being provided with hollowbracing mounted on the inside thereof, the hollow spaces of said bracingbeing connected together to form a continuous heating or coolingchamber, and the longitudinal and transverse sills of said car bodybeingprovided with hollow caps forming air spaces connected to the'air,

spaces in the hollow framing, with means for supplying fluid to saidchamber, substantially as described.l

7. A dumping car body having its sides inclined upward and inward so asto slightly overhang the interior of the car body, the said car bodybeing provided with hollow bracing mounted on the inside thereof, andwith hoppers having false bottoms therein with air chambers beneath saidfalse bottoms, the hollow spaces of said bracing and said air chambersbeneath the hoppers being connected together to form a continuousheating or cooling chamber, with means for supplying fluid to saidchamber, substantially as described.

8. A dumping car body having its sides and ends inclined upward andinward so as to, slightly overhang the interior of the car body, thesaid car body being provided with hollow bracing mounted on the insidethereof, and with hoppers having false bottoms therein with air chambersbeneath said false bottoms, the hollow spaces of said bracing and saidair chambers beneath the hoppers being connected together to form acontinuous heating or cooling chamber, with means for supplying fluid tosaid chamber, substantially as described.

9. A dumping car body having its sides inclined upward and inward so asto slightly overhang the interior of the car body, the

said car body being provided with hollow bracing mounted on the insidethereof, and with hoppers having false bottoms therein with air chambersbeneath said false boti toms, and the -longitudinal and transverse sillsof said car body being provided with hollow caps formingv air spacesconnected to the air spaces in the hollow framing, and to those beneaththe hoppers, forming'a continuous heating or cooling chamber,with meansfor supplying fluid to said chamber,

substantially as described.

said chamber,

10. A dumping carbody having its sides and ends inclined upward andinward so as to slightly overhang the interior of the car body, the saidcar body being provided with hollow bracing mounted on the insidethereof, and withhoppers having false bottoms therein with air chambersbeneath said false bottoms, and the longitudinal and transverse sills ofsaid car body being provided with hollow caps forming air spacesconnected to the airspaces in the hollow framing, and to those beneaththe hoppers, forming a continuous heating or cooling chamber, with meansfor supplying fluid to said chamber, substantially as described.

11. A dumping car body having its sides and ends forming the frustum ofa rectangular hollow pyramid, the said carbody being provided withhollowy bracing mounted on the inside thereof, and with hoppers havingfalse bottoms therein with air chambers beneathsaid false bottoms, andthe longi- 'bracing mounted on the inside thereof, the

hollow spaces of said bracing being connected together to form acontinuous heating lor cooling chamber, with means for supplying fluidto said chamber, substantially as described.

13. A car body provided with hollow bracing mounted on the insidethereof, the hollow spaces of said bracing being connected together toform a continuous heating chamber, with means for supplying steam tosubstantially as described.

14. A car body provided with hollow bracing mounted on the insidethereof, the hollow spaces of said bracing being connected together toform a continuous heating chamber, with means for supplying steam tosaid chamber, and means for drawing o the water of condensationtherefrom, 'substantially as and for the purpose described.

A15. A car body provided with hollow bracing mounted on the insidethereof, and the longitudinal and transverse sills of said car bodybeing provided with hollow caps forming air spaces connected to the airspaces in the hollow framing, the whole forming a continuous heating orcooling chamber, with means for supplying fluid to said chamber,substantially as described.

16. A car body provided with hollow bracing mounted on the insidethereof, and the longitudinal and transverse sills of said-car bodybeing provided with hollow caps form- License ing air spaces connectedto the air spaces in the hollow framing, the whole forming a continuousheating chamber, with means for supplying steam to said chamber, andmeans for drawing o the water of condensation therefrom, substantiallyas described.

17. A. dumping car body provided with hollow bracing mounted on theinside thereof, and with hoppers having false bottoms therein with airchambers beneath said hollow bottoms, the hollow spaces of said bracingbeing connected together and to said space beneath said false bottom toform a continuous heating or cooling chamber,with means for supplyingfluid to said chamber, substantially as described.

18. A car body provided with hollow bracing mounted on the insidethereof, and with hoppers having false bottoms therein with air chambersbeneath .said hollow bottoms, the hollow spaces of said bracing beingvconnected together and to said space beneath said false bottom to form acontinuous heating or cooling chamber, with means for supplying steam tosaid chamber, and means for drawing olf the water of condensationtherefrom, substantially as and for the purposes described.

19. A c ar body provided with hollow bracing mounted on the insidethereof, and with hoppers having false bottoms therein with air chambersbeneath said hollow bottoms, and the longitudinal and transverse sillsof said car body being provided with hollow caps forming air spacesconnected to the air spaces in the hollow framing and to said spacebeneath said false bottom, the whole forming a continuous heating orcooling chamber, with means for supplying fluid to said chamber,substantially as described.

20. A car body provided with hollow bracing mounted on the insidethereof, and with hoppers having false bottoms therein with air chambersbeneath said hollow bottoms, and the longitudinal and transverse sillsof said car body being provided with hollow caps forming air spacesconnected to the air spaces in the hollow framing and to saidspace.beneath said false bottom, the whole forming a continuous heatingchamber, with means for supplying steam to said chamber, and means fordrawing 0E the water of condensation therefrom, substantially asdescribed.

ln testimony whereof, ll amr my signature, in presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM T. MANNING. Vvitnesses:

R. M. PARKER, ERNEST WILKINSON.

